Originally from Michigan but educated in the south by the Savannah College of Art and Design, Jacob Ethington is a playwright and screenwriter who's always willing to relocate if necessary. Excerpts of his work are available to read on this site along with blog posts about media that he loves.

Dec 11

Dec 11 An Introduction to Jacob's Favorite Christmas Film List

Since this is the first year I've had a website, I decided that I'll be rolling out my ten favorite Christmas movies to watch around the holidays in honor of the occasion! I'll be posting a new review every day, starting December 16th and ending on Christmas day itself. I want to get one review in particular on the site before that date up (Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi), but after that review is up, each day will be one Christmas movie after the other.

Each film will receive its own review, but I wanted to get some potential questions about the format and nature of the list out of the way:

Lists are arbitrary by their own design, so there technically aren't strict rules for the format. For example, the "#3 slot" on the list is actually a tie and so that blog entry will review two movies at once. Also, three entries on the list aren't technically "films" but TV specials, all three of which are under an hour in length. So even though this is called "Jacob's Favorite Christmas Films," it technically has media that was never debuted in a theater.

I tried my best to avoid films that tangentially involve Christmas. Which is a fancy way of saying that films like Die Hard or Kiss Kiss Bang Bang are not on the list. I wanted to focus on movies that actually have the spirit of the holiday on their mind. And let me be clear, Die Hard wouldn't take the top slot anyway if I included films that were only set around Christmas (that honor would go to Terry Gilliam's masterpiece Brazil).

However, certain genre hybrids absolutely have made it onto the list. Just because a movie has monsters doesn't mean it doesn't have Christmas on its mind (I probably just gave away an entry on the list right there, but you'll just have to see where it ranks).

Let me get a disappointment out of the way: It's a Wonderful Life did not make this list, and the fact is that I will freely admit that it's a better film than arguably half of the films that made the list. The film is an undeniable work of art that very much has the spirit of the holiday on its mind, but the reason it didn't make the list is because it's beyond emotionally draining for me to watch it. To tell you the truth, I've seen the film a handful of times and I have to put years upon years between each viewing. Despite its optimistic ending, it depresses me in ways that I don't quite understand. I might review it on its own some day, but that day isn't coming this December.

Last, but not least though, is remembering that this is a personal list. Christmas is a time of year built around celebration, and to me creating and ranking my personal favorite Christmas films against each other isn't meant to be a competition. It's meant to be a celebration of the films that tend to have the uncanny effect of drawing people together. If you don't see your favorite Christmas movie on the list, that's okay! I'd actually go as far as encouraging anyone who reads these entries to put your own list together in honor of the holiday.

Obviously, since this post has gone up on December 11th, there's going to be a quite a bit of time between now and the "#10" entry on the list going up, but I wanted to give people an idea of why there's been such a long gap between this post and my last review going up over two weeks ago. I've been working on putting the list together for a decent amount of time, and on top of that I'm still trying to see other films before the year is done so that I can write up a Top Ten Films of 2017 list (I still haven't seen The Florida Project, Call Me By Your Name, Brawl in Cell Block 99, The Shape of Water, Raw, It Comes At Night, just to name a few).

In any case, I'm looking forward to getting all of that done and I can't wait to put out each review! Happy Holidays everyone!

Originally from Michigan but educated in the south by the Savannah College of Art and Design, Jacob Ethington is a playwright and screenwriter who's always willing to relocate if necessary. Excerpts of his work are available to read on this site along with blog posts about media that he loves.